“I said there was nothing so convincing to an Indian as a general massacre. If he could not approve of the massacre, I said the next surest thing for an Indian was soap and education. Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run; because a half-massacred Indian may recover, but if you educate him and wash him, it is bound to finish him some time or other.”

American writer, humorist, and essayist

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He is best known for the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and for a body of work that helped define American writing in the late 19th century. His books also include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Pudd'nhead Wilson. He co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today with Charles Dudley Warner. Twain's work is marked by wit, social satire, and a sharp eye for American life.